Jeoffrey

In 2015, when Yurikuma Arashi was being aired, I said in my review that I thought it was a kind of Attack on Titan for lesbians. The anime series had the misfortune of coming out at a time when the internet was full of shows about people fighting against oversized titans, insects, and all sorts of other vermin, so the bears caught me off guard. However, in this day and age, I thought that it was just not that original... What surprised me at the time, though, was how overly sweet it was, and I am referring to one particular dream scene involving sensual flower licking. This put me off at the time, and (I dropped the anime series immediately after the first episode). Even after all these years, it has in all truth probably put me off again. I had no idea what it was all about at the time, and to be honest, I am still not sure I really want to find out now. So even though bears may not be bears, walls may not be walls, and licking a flower petal probably means something too - I still only managed to get through one episode this second time around. In conclusion, it is the same story as in 2015, and the result is the same as in the Sarazanmai review. Drop after the first episode (for the second time).

Each of us is longing for something, we are all hiding something (and as House, M.D. would add - everybody lies)... Well, the director Ikuhara just does not know how to communicate this! Thanks to FilmBooster user Starletka I get that some people just have to try and shove as much symbolism as they can into a show, and so sometimes bears are not bears, at other times a penguin is not a penguin, and in this show, a kappa is not a kappa and boxes are not just boxes - because after all, in that show with the bears, the wall was not a wall either... In other words, this show is way too complex, it comes over as cluttered and over-elaborate, has more layers than Shrek’s onions, and above all, it is always full of rather shocking scenes and insane use of color filters. Well, I guess all this will be a stumbling block for me because shocking scenes and subject matter I cannot relate to was something that also put me off Revolutionary Girl Utena. I have now (as I found out) largely forgotten about the penguins, I could not understand the bears and abandoned them after the first episode, and I only made it through three episodes of the kappas. So I have made my mind up about this show - this is just not for me. Even If the narrative may be another "masterpiece" and the characters are complex plus each episode reveals some more of their shocking secrets - I am still not going to watch it. Sorry - Dropped after the third episode, and yes it has its merits, however, at the same time it is not my cup of tea, and I still cannot get my head around a lot of it! 5.5/10.

This show features a main male protagonist, nicknamed the walking libido, who keeps dropping one humorous suggestive remark filled with sexual innuendo after another. He is surrounded by a bunch of women of all ages and has even convinced his class teacher that it is fashionable to walk around in a sexy Domina-2000 outfit. He then manages to get his hands on a kind of time machine (or rather a thing with a toggle switch that has a save function), which can be used to turn back time, and so strange things start to happen... In all seriousness, it sounds like a formula for a "good" hentai anime series, and some of the situations and many of the main male protagonist's interactions with any woman have (in my opinion) a strong erotic subtext. However, if I were the director, I could have just directed this as hentai straight from the off. In the end, though, it is not a hentai anime series, nor is it just a very erotic anime series, but rather it is just that a lot of scenes could cause a person who has seen a lot of hentai to make a lot of inappropriate assumptions. It is like with the sit-com Friends when Joey watched too much porn and then was surprised that the pizza delivery girl was not up for having sex... So what is it, anyway? If I discount the above, we are actually left with something that sort of resembles Steins;Gate  (the fourth and fifth episodes at least), even though it is not even half as interesting, thrilling, or entertaining. The supposedly scientific "mumbo jumbo" is not at all believable, and I just cannot shake the feeling that they are all after "one thing" anyway... I am going to quit before it makes me go nuts and go watch something with a more satisfying storyline. Dropped after the sixth episode and 3.14/10.

Unlike some of my friends, I have no aversion to Chinese animation (except perhaps Panda and Little Mole) and Chinese "anime". I have even discovered a few good Chinese productions over the past few years that I remember and sometimes have the urge to watch again. It is a real shame, therefore, that this movie had such bad quality animation that it spoiled my impression of it to some extent. At times the movements seemed unnatural and sometimes (I can think of two scenes off the top of my head) it almost looked like the characters were sliding around on a treadmill instead of walking. In addition, at other times the movements were simply jerky... I was also not impressed with the CGI treatment of some of the scenes and buildings/objects. In other words, compared to what I have been used to from other anime movies, this was all rather a bit below standard. On the other hand, the movie had a good soundtrack, it was distinctive and some scenes were more powerful and had the right atmosphere just because of that, which was good although the other, more boring bits could have done with a bit more atmosphere, etc too. I thought the narrative was great, understated, realistic and considering the fact that it is more or less about the same generation as I am from (the main part of the narrative takes place in 1999), I found it quite close to my heart. I found that even the coming-of-age subject matter, deciding what to do with your life, was all really intriguing and really well presented in this movie. However, what I enjoyed the most was the romantic subplot. I do not know if it was the fact that I remember the romantic adventures of my student days in a similarly "disappointing" way (for example, giving someone you like advice about their love-life when it concerns someone else - I only experienced that about four times in my youth), or if the main male protagonist reminded me so much of myself because of his behavior (decent adolescent guys who lend girls with cold hands their gloves do not usually end as “winners” among their peers), though either way, it was again quite close to my heart... So in the end I actually enjoyed this movie despite my reservations concerning the animation. However, I still cannot shake the feeling that it could have been much more intense and emotional, because at least the Japanese directors know how to do that. My final rating was a tough decision, as although the overall impression for me was slightly above average, am I going to award this a strong three stars or a poor four stars? More likely I should award the strong three stars --- put in terms of the ratio 6.4/10.

"So anyways I have a new movie coming out... What is it? Just another rip-off of Planes, the not-so-successful follow-up to the movie Cars?" I only watched this movie out of boredom, and once again all I can say is yeah, I watched something I wished I had not… The movie features truly awful animation, unlikable characters, and a stupid, boring narrative... The way it looks, the static background, the terrible awful lip-syncing, well, for 2018, that is an absolute tragedy. I was originally going to skip over it and pretend I had never seen it in my life at all, and that this hour of my life, like a few others, had never existed. However, I then looked at the director's profile and realized that this fool is just churning out one awful animated movie after another. I guess the quality of the animation and everything else does not matter to him, and that kind of pissed me off. After all, in 2017-2018 alone, the director made twenty-two movies and judging by the IMDb ratings, they are mostly "treasures". Damn, why did he and his production companies not just take all that money they put into those twenty-two crazy movies and invest it into at least one normal somewhat decent project instead? This is like dumping a bunch of artwork which is the same standard as the trailer for The Drummer and the Princess into the world! I just do not like it... I was going to award it BOO! and then after thinking about it for a while whilst writing this review, I changed my mind and am going to award it one star because as boring as they were, the robot's information about the planes had some sort of educational value, which I think gives this abomination at least some sort of purpose... So, 1/10, and I would prefer not to see anything from Mr. Tramel again in the future…

This is an interesting and emotional documentary that gives the audience a glimpse behind the scenes, and more importantly, helps to complete the picture of what lies behind the success of this game. Certainly, there was a lot of work, nervousness, uncertainty, blood, sweat, and tears. However, the main thing is that the creators poured something of their lives into it, they put their heart into the game. The documentary is very long, however, it contains a lot of emotional statements, genuine opinions, and SPOILER ALERT!!! when you see "Teal'c" talking about his family and almost crying, you can hardly get through it with a dry eye - end of SPOILERS. Anyway, what all of these gentlemen and ladies have done with this brand is as great a feat as when J.J. Abrams "rebooted" Star Trek and I was seriously rooting for them to make it the game of the year 2018. In conclusion - Good job BOY!

I found this show hugely satisfying because this anime series has a lot of scenes which are really great and powerful on all levels. Whether it be the romantic subplots, the bromance, the melodrama, or the soundtrack, in each of these aspects I always found at least one interesting and entertaining moment that got me. I could certainly make a slight criticism, in that I would have personally preferred a bit more music because jazz is a genre I really like, and less of everything else. However, I guess that if they had done that, I would have missed out on a lot of the romantic moments, and also the totally realistic and interesting human dramas... In other words, for example, stuff like the ending of a plot line like Jun and Yuriko's touched my romantic heart. Plus, I found the very end of the anime series also beautifully satisfying... It is also because I have grown to like almost all the characters in this show, so even when they reached a low point and sometimes acted in a way that might have even made me dislike them, I still managed to root for them... Sure, (in my heart) Nodame Cantabile is still at the top of my list of best musical anime series, even so, this was also excellent. 9.1/10.

This is a nice story about how some things may change, but life still goes on regardless... Concerning the soundtrack and animation, it is quite good, and the narrative side is understated and quite endearing. However, it does not have much depth and is not as interesting as I had expected at times. The dramatic backdrop is rather hinted at (and if you do not know how it relates to a certain tragedy that happened in Japan, half of the message is lost) and it is so ordinary, human, sad - just like life. I personally found it was half an hour well spent, albeit only worth three stars. 6.3/10.

Personally, I think this is the best movie starring Vlasta Burian, and my favorite "movie for reminiscing" and whenever I see it on TV, I always watch it until the end and really enjoy it.

Rimmer alone makes it impossible not to love this series…